THE QUEEN v. CHAN YUET-NING

-----------------

JUDGMENT

-----------------

Mortimer JA (giving the judgment of the Court):

1. On 25 July 1996 the applicant pleaded guilty before Wong J to trafficking in a mixture containing 90.50 grammes of heroin. The applicant was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment. He now seeks leave to appeal against sentence on the grounds that it was too heavy.

2. He is 34 years of age and has no relevant conviction in recent years.

The facts

3. On 16 December 1995 in the early hours of the morning, officers on duty in Wan Chai stopped the applicant and in his jacket pocket he had 13 plastic bags containing the drug. Those plastic bags were appropriately marked in weight and purity for street sale.

4. The evidence from the prosecution was that the street value of those drugs was just over $188,000. The applicant challenged that. He admitted, through counsel, that the value was $104,000. It was a very serious case.

The sentence

5. The applicant submits that the judge failed to take into account properly his family background, his recent record of not offending and his plea of guilty at the first opportunity. None of those points are valid. The judge took into account the mitigation which was put before him by Mr McGowan. Dealing with such family background was important. His family were in court to support him. The judge said that he would pay no attention to his criminal record for the purpose of the case. Having pointed out that he had been out of trouble for a very long time and taking into account his plea of guilty, the judge took a starting point of 9 years imprisonment, which he regarded rightly as a generous starting point under the guidelines of R v Lau Tak-ming. He then allowed a reduction of one-third for the mitigating factors. The sentence was perfectly proper.

6. In all the circumstances there is absolutely no merit in this application. This application is dismissed.